Watney cracks OWGR top 20 with Barclays win

After picking up his third win in the last two seasons, Nick Watney is once again in the top 20 of the Official World Golf Ranking.

Watney, who won The Barclays on Sunday for his fifth-career PGA Tour win, jumped up to 19th from 35th in the latest ranking. Just behind Watney is second-place finisher Brandt Snedeker, who was 29th.

Across the Atlantic, Paul Lawrie won the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles in the final European Tour event to qualify for the Ryder Cup. Lawrie gained a paltry four spots in the ranking for the W, going to 30th.

Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald, Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood and Webb Simpson remain the top five in the world. Bubba Watson jumped a spot to sixth, while Jason Dufner actually gained two spots to seventh despite skipping the playoff opener. Justin Rose, Adam Scott and Steve Stricker round out the top 10.

Perhaps the move of the week went to Canadian Graham DeLaet. With his final-round 65 at Bethpage Black, DeLaet not only moved up 38 spots to a tie for fifth, he also moved on in the FedEx Cup playoffs and improved 77 OWGR spots to 155th.

About the author

Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is founder and editor of Golf News Net. He has been writing and broadcasting about golf for over a decade, working for NBC Sports, Golf Channel, Yahoo Sports and SB Nation. Ballengee lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. He used to be a good golfer.